Originally published in The Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 23 2017 If children are the future, public education nourishes hope. It’s the great social equalizer, because it identifies and rewards each child’s potential and ambition. Or it was circa 1970. Today, Florida’s schools destroy hope teacher by teacher. Their recent loss: my 30-year-old daughter. Most Americans (75 […]
Read More →Originally published in The Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 29, 2017. How awful was Hurricane Irma? The answer depends on more than the debris in your yard. It also depends on the debris in your head. Was the power off “for only three days,” or was it “unfathomable that Duke Energy made us wait when I could […]
Read More →My daughter danced at Pulse nightclub in Orlando a number of times before a crazed gunman opened fire last year. She called each local friend as we waited for word on the victims, hoping each would just pick up, pick up, pick up. We waited for the list of the dead after it was over. […]
Read More →Monuments are artistic things that we, the living, put up to honor our past. A big tombstone suggests that the dead guy was important. Medium-sized tombstones mean a person was loved. Tiny tombstones suggest a pauper passed on. How important was someone? Look at the size and expense of his monument. As a result, the […]
Read More →Writers want our words back. Politicians, advertisers and advocacy groups stole perfectly good words, twisted meanings and left us in an awkward position: We can’t talk about certain topics because we don’t have the tools to say what we mean. “Freedom of speech” doesn’t work without the “speech” part. “Fake news” is the latest. It […]
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